Drug addiction and alcoholism are serious social problems. Many addictive drugs are now being abused in the United States and the rest of the world at high cost to society. Vast sums of money are spent in treatment and rehabilitation programs in a futile effort to solve the problem. As illicit narcotics are expensive, it is not uncommon for an addict to engage in criminal enterprises, such as robbery or theft, to obtain the money necessary to support his or her drug habits.
Current approaches to heroin addiction include methodone maintenance programs where a government sponsored narcotic, methodone, is substituted for the illegal narcotic, heroin. This method is self-defeating because methodone is itself addicting and one form of drug addiction is merely substituted for another. In fact, this method does not free the patient from drug addiction.
Another approach to heroin addiction is a simple withdrawal program, otherwise known as "cold turkey", where the addict is physically prevented from ingesting the addicting drug, i.e., jail. Consequently the addict goes through a withdrawal period marked by severe muscle spasms, chills, lacramation, diarrhea, vomiting, and a continuing "guts craving" for the narcotic. The "cold turkey" method involves a not inconsiderable amount of pain and for this reason is dreaded and avoided by addicts.
Another method of withdrawal from addicting drugs is the methadone detox method. A progressively reduced dose of methadone is given until a zero dose is reached at the twenty-first day. The addicted patient comes away "sick" and still has the "guts craving" for drugs, hence the patient returns to drug usage to "get well" from the methadone detox.
An additional method of drug detox is the use of valium, darvon, darvon-n, etc. to symptomatically assist the individual off the offending drug. This technique is also unsatisfactory.
Alcoholism is another serious and costly social problem. Aside from the expense of treating severe cases of alcoholism, the social cost in terms of lost productivity, and benefits paid to families of alcoholics in the form of disability insurance, are considerable. Current approaches to alcoholism include a method of alcohol loading to induce sickness, after which unpleasant confrontations are initiated to stimulate aversion to drinking.
There is also the electrode method of stimulus-response to create aversion. An alcoholic is given a drink and as the drink is raised to the lips he or she receives an uncomfortable electric stimulus.
There is also the supportive A-A concept of "cold turkey" detox which encourages the alcoholic to admit he or she has hit bottom as an alcoholic in order to induce a desire to get well.
All the above approaches, and others known to date, treat alcoholism or drug addiction as a problem essentially confined to preventing ingestion of the offending substance. All require anywhere from 72 hours to 21 days to accomplish detoxification, which, with withdrawal symptoms, is a slow and painful process. None do anything to reduce either withdrawal symptoms or the "guts craving" for the narcotizing substance. Slight, if any, attention is directed toward the patient's nutritional health or lack thereof. Once the patient is released from the cocoon environment of these programs, he or she alone must cope with the stress of everyday life and not infrequently returns to the drug environment.
There is need for a method for rapidly detoxifying drug or alcohol addicts, which both blocks withdrawal symptoms and eliminates the "guts craving" effect. The need extends to a regimen which provides the subject with adequate tools for handling the stress of everyday life.